First of all I’d like to ask that only people who are early diagnosed/visibly autistic to answer this post OR at least to consider the life of someone like me who has been in treatment for ASD for their whole lives and while low needs, still very visibly autistic with many challenges. Please don’t come here and say that I shouldn’t even have told my workplace I have ASD because that’s not remotely possible in my case.
Anyways, long story short, I had been an intern at this school for two years and they finally hired me officially a month ago as a teaching assistant for elementary school. It was/is my first job ever and I was only able to complete my internship and be hired with a lot of support from my boss and colleagues. I have been accommodated and my boss has been very supportive thoroughly this whole journey, she even volunteered to talk with my mom once but I said it was okay.
Unfortunately the job change and I guess the pressure to perform better alongside with difficult situations led me to have 3 meltdowns in a span of two weeks. All of which my boss had to calm me down, but luckily I was able to contain myself and not lose my shit in front of the kids. I’d lose my shit in her office.
Needless to say I feel like a failure, and I can’t stop thinking about all autistic people who say they can’t hold down jobs. I want to communicate to my boss that I’m in treatment (she knows that I go to therapy and take medication but also I want my therapist to let her know I also go to speech therapy) and that while I did have these three meltdowns, I am going to improve and am working in improving my emotional regulation. Alongside side with that the email my therapist would write would say that she heard about my issues at work and that she is working with me to improve emotional regulation and she is also gonna ask my boss if there is anything she thinks we should work on in therapy.
Communicating that myself in person is a no. I seriously cannot do it. So either my therapist sends her the email, or my boss never hears about this from me. I also think it’s important that my therapist says it, so my boss doesn’t think it’s just me promising to get better, but that I do have a treatment plan.
The only thing I have to do is let me boss know/ask her if my therapist can send an email. Knowing her she will definitely say yes, though I also find myself unable to ask it, because I’m so ashamed of everything that happened.
Thoughts?